Feminist victory: Madrid bans “manspreading” on public transport

Madrid’s EMT transport corporation has unveiled a new set of stickers to be placed on all city buses including one of a male figure with his knees spread wide apart, accompanied by the slogan “Respect others’ space”.

They are the visual evidence of the ban on ‘manspreading’ (term illustrated in the tweet below), implemented in Madrid after feminists convinced the city’s left-wing council that men invading the space of others with their splayed legs were a problem that needed to be tackled. The Feminist group, called Mujeres en Lucha (Women at War), launched a social network campaign against ‘manspreading’ and presented a petition signed by 10,000 people to Madrid city hall.

Alejandra de la Fuente, the leader of the anti-manspreading campaign, commented on the ban:

“It’s a question of culture. We women have always been told to occupy the least amount of space possible, and men haven’t.”

The left-wing council, led by a coalition backed by the left-wing Podemos party presented a motion, read by Clara Serra of Podemos:

“We believe that putting a name to and making visible these kinds of daily sexist behaviour that go unnoticed is the way ahead to become more aware, seeing what we used not to see and leaving inequality and machismo behind.”

The council also pointed out that other anti-social behaviour was being targeted in the new notices, including putting feet on seats and listening to loud music on headphones.